wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 314-Candler embraces new faculty, old roots

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>Candler embraces new faculty, old roots

>Jul. 23, 2008

NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.

>A UMNS Report By Jennifer Lind*

Candler School of Theology is strengthening its ties with The United
Methodist Church by welcoming seven new faculty members, six of whom are
United Methodist.

The hiring is part of strategic plans adopted by both Candler and Emory
University in Atlanta "to ensure that the university draws on its United
Methodist heritage," according to Jan Love, dean of the theology school.

"Emory University is owned by the Southeastern Jurisdiction of The
United Methodist Church," Love told United Methodist News Service.  "...
The university has always been close to The United Methodist Church."

The six new United Methodist faculty members have diverse backgrounds in
scholarship and ministry.

Retired Bishop Ruediger Minor of Dresden, Germany, will serve for two
years as the Daniel and Lillian Hankey Chair of World Evangelism. This
position complements the Arthur J. Moore Chair in Evangelism at the
school.

Minor will teach courses in evangelism, lead a contextual education
group, and work closely with the World Methodist Evangelism Institute, a
cooperative ministry of Candler and the World Methodist Council that
trains evangelism leaders.

"The nomination for the Hankey Chair of World Evangelism came to me as a
complete surprise and a great honor and challenge," said Minor, who
helped re-establish the denomination's presence in Russia and other
countries of the former Soviet Union.

"From my background and experience as bishop in Germany and Russia, I
see world evangelism as a challenge to the ecumenical community.
Therefore, I will pursue dialogue with concepts of evangelization in
other confessional families, especially Catholicism and Orthodoxy. While
methodology is certainly of importance, I see the major task in a joint
effort to formulate the Good News - the 'evangel' - as a healing word
for a hurting world."

Love views Minor's commitment to ecumenism as a vital part of Candler's
celebration of the Wesleyan tradition. "You can't be a follower of John
Wesley without being ecumenical," she said, referring to Methodism's
founder. "It's just part of our DNA."

Minor led United Methodists in former East Germany during the Cold War.
He graduated with a doctorate in theology from Karl Marx University (now
the University of Leipzig) and has taught at the United Methodist
Theological Seminary in Bad Klosterlausnitz.  Minor has also taught at
the United Methodist Theological Seminary in Moscow. He was elected
bishop and assigned to lead the East German Central Conference in 1986
and retired from the Eurasia Area in 2005.

>Theological perspective

Ellen Ott Marshall joins the faculty as associate professor of Christian
ethics and conflict transformation. She will teach Christian ethics and
advanced electives and participate in Candler's contextual education
program.

Love said Marshall "brings a powerful theological perspective to issues
of conflict and peace building and right relations between people, and
all those things that we imagine in the biblical vision of shalom."

She pointed out that Candler needs "...greater training on how to
navigate the conflicts that every church encounters and how to treat
each other more like sisters and brothers in Christ. ... Many churches
and many denominations feel like a war zone sometimes."

Marshall, who has a doctorate in religion, ethics and society from
Vanderbilt University, has served as associate professor of religion at
United Methodist-related Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology since
2002. She also has worked with the refugee resettlement programs of the
Church World Service and has been involved in the United Methodist
Committee on Relief.

She has authored Christians in the Public Square: Faith that Transforms
Politics (Abington Press 2008), Choosing Peace through Daily Practices
(Pilgrim Press 2005) and Though the Fig Tree Does Not Blossom: Toward a
Responsible Theology of Christian Hope (Abingdon Press 2006).

The Rev. Anne Burkholder has been named associate dean of Methodist
studies, a new position designed to coordinate curricular and
non-curricular programming for students interested in being ordained in
The United Methodist Church and other Wesleyan denominations.

Burkholder, who holds a doctorate in ethics and society from Emory
University, will also supervise the United Methodist Course of Study and
manage relations between Candler and the denomination's annual
(regional) conferences.

She most recently served as the director of connectional ministries and
as a district superintendent in the United Methodist Florida Conference,
and she has helped redevelop congregations in Florida and North
Carolina. She previously was executive director of Miami Urban
Ministries, overseeing the development of faith-based social service
ministries, including Head Start, a program for Haitian children, and
has taught at Duke Divinity School.

>Additional faculty members

The Rev. Don Harp will serve one year as pastor-theologian in residence,
a new position created to provide guidance to seminary students. He has
served the denomination's North Georgia Conference for more than 40
years and helped increase the congregation at Peachtree Road United
Methodist Church to some 6,900 members. Harp earned a master of divinity
degree from Candler and a doctorate of divinity from McCormick
Theological Seminary at the University of Chicago.

The Rev. L. Edward Phillips has been named associate professor of
worship and liturgical theology. Most recently an associate professor of
practice of Christian worship at Duke Divinity School, he taught at
Union College and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. He earned a
doctorate in the history of liturgy from the University of Notre Dame.

The Rev. Robert "Bob" Winstead joins the faculty as director of lifelong
learning, a position created to support the college's initiative to
broaden and deepen programs of lifelong learning. Formerly the senior
pastor at Haygood Memorial United Methodist Church in Atlanta, he also
is an author and church educator.  He holds a master of divinity degree
from Candler and a doctorate in ministry from McCormick.

*Lind is an intern at the United Methodist News Service.  She is a
senior religious studies major at the University of Wisconsin-Eau
Claire.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

>********************

United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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